Thorns in the Crown
by Cross Phantom
Summary: Captain Trendious forswore his vow to the emperor centuries ago, yet even still he fights, for what else were can a warrior do? He is determined to prove himself worthy of the eternal gift, but at what cost will it come? Will it be his life?


Jason Carson knew his life was over. It was all a mater of time but he knew it was over. He wished now that he had died on the ship, even if it had been slow, it would have been better than this. He had been dragged into this room, a bag had been shoved over his head so it was impossible for him to tell where this room was in the confines of this damned ship. All he knew was it felt massive. The ceiling was veiled in a black mist which might have been a product of the horrible lighting in the room. A series of dirt encrusted, yellow illumination rods provided the scant light in the room, they were mounted vertically on the the walls at even intervals. However there seemed to be a unnatural black fog that hung about the room, obscuring everything as if one was looking through a dirty window pain. He was strapped down to a ice cold duristeel table, everything but his head was immobilized, and a cold sweet covered his naked chest. Time was a wash for him, it had been ever since he had been take aboard this Emperor forsaken ship. Even still the longer he lay there, the more vulnerable he felt. The image of those little insects pinned down to be dissected by school children kept running through his head. He figured that is what he looked like.

"What is going on?" he yelled to the darkness.

"What do you want?" he yelled again after a few moments.

A hunched shadow moved, and he craned his neck to look at it. A thin red orb pierced the darkness, it stared at him questioningly for a moment, then it went out, leaving him once again looking at the shadows. His mouth was dry, the air itself seemed to be sucking the moisture from his lips. Another shadow moved, and he flipped his head over to look at it. It crept towards another area in the room; it was also hunched and walked with a very disjointed gate. He figured the thing was human, it looked it by its shape, by no details of it could be discerned. It was something like a hunched old man, with almost no neck, a little heavy too, with his skin sagging from his frame.

"Hey, hey, . . . hey!" he yelled at the shadow, but it ignored him completely, showing no sign it even heard his shouts. It kept moving until it too was reabsorbed into the darkness. He let his head relax, letting his eyes stare back up at the black fog. The room he noted, was made in the way of the great cathedrals with might pillars running the length of the walls, presumably holding up the ceiling. The walls were made to look as if they were constructed of mighty blocks of dark stone. Looking up made him feel small, it reminded him that he was truly insignificant.

_Why did I ever join the navy, why did I want adventure? _he thought, _I should have stayed at the factory as mother had said. _

Suddenly there was a great burst of white light that came from the far end of the room, and standing in the middle of it was a the dark outline of a man.

"Emperor," he whispered to himself. Then the light was extinguished and the dark outline became a shadow, a shadow that was walking towards him. As it approached he realized it couldn't be a man, for it was far to tall and far to broad. The shadow stood over seven feet high, and his upper body looked to be made of pure toned muscle. Suddenly Jason found himself bathed in white light, forcing him to squint until his eyes adjusted. The shadow stepped into the light and Jason was horrified by its appearance. It wore no shirt, just a skirt of deep purple fabric with a thick leather belt, which was bordered in roughly hewn runes. Its skin was sickly white and covered in silver and pink scares. Some were very precise, some jagged, some small, and some ran across large sections of his torso. Many were in lines as if made by a knife but some were pinkish craters, the kind of scar typical of small arms wounds. His head was barren of hair, and two brass studs sat above his left eyebrow, which was a thin, pointed line of black hair. His eyes were a deep green but his pupils were vertical like a predator. He simply stood there for a time, letting Jason stare at him from between his feet.

"Are you afraid boy?" it said, its voice was deep and gravelly, its lips a sickly purple.

"Do you know what awaits you?" The creature asked as it circled the table to look into Jason's eyes. There was an odd note of sympathy in its voice.

"You certainly must by now." The creature answered its own question. Its face had been perfectly stoic up to this point, but suddenly a look of pain flitted across its eye and its mouth twitched slightly.

"Do you know I once was in the position you are now?"

"Do you know what it feels like to not have a choice, to do a duty that no one asked if you wanted?" The creature was still staring at him, his face once again stoic.

"Do you know what it feels like to have your life stripped away from you?" Do you know what it feels like to have your manhood taken from you, all in the name of a false god?"

It leaned in farther. Jason could smell the stink of its breath, something similar to blood.

"Do you?" The creature asked louder, anger flashed across its face again. Jason shook his head, meekly.

"I was made into a warrior, a god of battle. I never asked to be this way, I was chosen, and I was told it was an honor."

"Is it an honor?" The creature looked down at him questioningly.

"To serve the Emperor is the greatest honor of any man," Jason respond on instinct, he was rather impressed with how strong his voice sounded.

The creature started to laugh, raising its head toward the ceiling and a great, unsettling, sadistic, laugh issue from its throat.

"Oh they have taught you well. Its an honor to be cut up like a piece of meat and stuck back together? It is an honor to have your manhood taken and your life destroyed? I also suppose you think it is an honor to die in his name too!" It retorted a sarcastic tone laced its speech. It reached down to its belt and drew forth from its sheath, a long thick bladed combat knife. The creature held it up to the light and let Jason watch as the curved blade glinted. It then leaned and spoke directly to Jason's ear, he could fill its cold spittle.

"We shall see how you feel, once I show you what it is like to be a piece of meat."

The creature caught the waist of his navy trousers with the tip of the knife, lifting them up away from Jason's skin, it then cut them down the leg in one swift motion. With its free hand it ripped his trousers wide open, so that Jason's naked lower body was lay exposed. Jason's eyes widened as the realization set in. The creature reached out and seized in its fist his testicles, and it lifted them up away from his body, stretching the skin of his sack taunt in the process. Jason started to shake his head, "No, no, no!" A smile spread across the its lips as it brought the knife down and slowly cut through the flesh. Scarlet followed in the wake of the blade and Jason screamed, as much in shock as in pain. He screamed again and kept screaming as he looked at his testicles, held in the palm of this things hand, like a pair of bloody dice.

"I take it, that you don't like it." A sick smile lay upon its lips. Jason stopped screaming, panting to try and recover his breath and calm himself. He could feel the warm tinge of blood against the inside of his legs. The creature leaned back down to speak into his ear.

"Now for this next bit, make sure you scream nice and loud, maybe if you do, I will make it quicker." Then with a swift movement of the knife, the creature laid open Jason's lower abdomen. Pain flooded his mind, over loading his sense as he once again began screaming. Jason's vision started to tunnel as the pain threatened to over whelm him. The creature worked a bit more with the knife, making expert cuts as scarlet blood flowed freely in the wake of the blade. Jason looked, in macabre horror, down as the damned creature held up a section of his entrails for him to look at; exactly how a butcher would show his client a link of sausage before he wrapped it. A large grin had spread across the creatures face.

"Emperor! Oh Emperor, help me!" Jason heard himself scream, the words issuing forth with no thought as he felt his mind shutting down due to pain and shock.

"Scream for him boy, scream all you want, but know he can't hear you. He never could."


End file.
